Community Question: Year-Round Homeschooling

Community Question is a category inspired by you. Here and there readers write in with questions that are better served by the varied, experiential knowledge of those who read and contribute in the comments.

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The following question is from Danielle C.

“My husband and I both agree that learning happens everywhere and at any time, but we are divided on the subject of year-long school. He feels Summer Break is an important time for kids to unwind and refresh. I can understand his perspective for those students in public and private school programs. These programs pack in 8 hours, 180 days/year, for nine months. If our daughter was not homeschooled I would support Summer Break. However, Homeschooling can be tailored so there is not a need to unwind.

For those who homeschool year-round, can you explain how this looks for your family, what kind of curriculum you use (if any), and whether you take any breaks at all (for instance, Christmas and Spring Break)?”

Do you homeschool throughout the year? Can you provide some experiential insight for Danielle?

Heather Sanders

Hi. I’m Heather, a freelance writer living in Huntsville, a smallish town on the tail-end of the East Texas Pineywoods.
Twenty years ago, I married Jeff, the love of my life, and shortly after, we chose to “go forth and multiply.” We have three kids: Emelie, Meredith and Kenny. We homeschool. It's what we do, and it works for us.
Tired of feeling overwhelmed, we recently "faithsized" our family into a 960 square foot lake cabin in need of renovation. I write at HeatherSanders.com about faith and simplifying your desires so you can be content right here and right now

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http://www.joyandcontementment.wordpress.com Trina@JoyAndContentment

Oohhh, I like this question because we recently made the switch ourselves to our own version of year-round learning. While I do agree that kids need a break, I also realize that every year prior to 2011 included a lot of review time and frustration that felt pointless. I found this to be especially true with math — they worked so hard to master the concepts, only to lose it after a couple months of down time.

Our solution to this issue was doing a little bit of work on a few subjects through the summer. What a huge improvement to our year!

I wrote a post about our thought process last year. We didn’t follow the plan exactly, but it was fairly close and our fall ramp up to full time was much smoother than in years past.

Of course, it goes without saying that this approach allows flexibility to take time through the year as we choose… which is a huge plus! I mean, you can do that anyway, but it feels better knowing (and telling potential naysayers) that you go all year to make up for the gaps.

Good luck!!

Janet Crit

We do not home school, but… our children are in a public year-round school system. The schedule is arranged in quarters (marking periods): 9 weeks of instruction and 3-4 weeks of break.

There are 4 scheduled long breaks throughout the year. The official school year begins for us on August 1, and our kids are in school for 9 weeks – the first quarter. Then they have a 3 week break in October. The second quarter begins in late October and goes for 9 weeks to the week before Christmas. They have the usual Christmas break through the New Year and then an additional 3 weeks off for their winter break. Another 9 weeks for the 3rd quarter, and then 3 weeks off in April. Then the final quarter runs through the end of June.

This schedule works very well with my kids’ dispositions. There is no burnout for them or me, they do not loose knowledge over the breaks, and we get to take vacations when attractions aren’t swamped with crowds 🙂

Camille

This will be my first summer doing homeschooling, so consider this is the plan for my six-year-old boy. I plan on slowing down, but not stopping. Keeping up with our math and reading (he isn’t a confident reader yet) so we don’t put a halt to our progress and adding in a fun Maps course (http://www.setonbooks.com/viewone.php?ToView=P-HI01-21) to help him build and draw and understand the parts of a map. As always in summer, with a garden and taking hikes we will have more than enough science time talking about nature and wildlife, so I am not too worried about that. He also got a telescope for his birthday which he is itching to use when nights get warmer, so that will count toward science too. I think with all that going on, we will be able to keep up the idea that you don’t stop learning just because it is summer, while still having lots of free time for fun and unwinding.

Kylie

I am not a homeschooler, but in Australia year round schooling is the way our schools work. Our children attend school for 200 days a year, for six hours a day (5 hours are lessons, the other hour is recess/lunch). Our school year is broken into 4 terms, with the school year starting the last week in January. Each term is ten weeks long, followed by a two week break. The fourth term is followed by approximately six weeks break, which covers Christmas and our Summer.

I think a huge benefit of year round schooling is that there is less loss of knowledge/skills, etc., over the Summer break, which means less revision at the start of the new school year. I think that year round schooling would be a good fit with homeschooling!

I was happy to see this question as year round schooling is something we recently adopted. I had been disappointed for years with the amount of review work we had to do each fall, so I thought that continuing with a much-reduced schedule through the summer would help things along and ultimately save us time. BOY, was I right!

I wrote a post about the though process (and kid-involvement in the decision) here:

The other obvious advantage to this approach is that it frees up time for you (esp. for travel) at other times of the year. I mean, we have more free time ANYWAY, but it does alleviate any potential guilt in that department, as well as quesitons from any naysayers…

Good luck!

Vera

I am a retired homeschooling mom, having taught K-12. After a couple of years of taking off during the summer, we decided to school year-round. That does not mean we schooled all year.

We took off from Thanksgiving until January. I didn’t want my children to have memories of me being a complete basket case during the holidays – so we just took off during that time and enjoyed ourselves!

Also, since we live in Texas and have brutally hot summers, it made more sense to school during that time. Not every day, all summer long. . . . but sometimes it’s just too hot to be be outdoors, so we schooled through most of the summer.

That’s one of the joys of homeshooling – each family gets to choose what works best for them!

http://www.joyandcontentment.wordpress.com Trina

Oops! It looked like there was a glitch in the comments, so I posted again an hour later. Now both are here! Sorry ’bout that!

http://www.susanbowers.typepad.com Susan

We have only been homeschool for a short time now (not quite 2 years) and we have moved to an almost year long schedule. We begin on Aug 1 with our Co-op beginning the end of Aug. and run until Christmas break. Our break this past year at Christmas coincided with family visiting. When they left we went back to school (early Jan). We took a semi-spring break (we stayed on top of some co-op homework and we continued to read but other than that they were free). We will run through Jun 30 or so. Both my boys are going on a mission trip to Ecuador at the beginning of July and they also have a week long boy scout camp in July. We might be able to squeeze in church camp if we can afford it. We use various curriculum, none of which ‘requires’ us to be done at a certain time. I already have their upcoming 9-12th grade years mapped out and what has to be completed to meet graduation requirements per state so as long as we finish we’ll remain on track. After all is said, we’ll continue with July being our ‘summer’ break – any more and the boys get ansy. Otherwise mini breaks throughout the year serve to keep the boys from burn out.

http://amissionaryheart.blogspot.com ElisabethJoy

I am a teacher who has taught in both formal and non-formal education settings, both all year schooling and the regular school schedule. From the student’s learning point of view, as a teacher, I would say that all year is by far the best; less review and more time to really cement concepts. This is not to say that breaks are bad, believe me with out breaks most teachers and students in any setting would go insane!!

http://chasinraisins.blogspot.com/ Tina Marie

We have always homeschooled year round for a number of reasons.

Melissa A

This is a great question!

We follow a bit of a different calendar than traditional school. We run on a quarter system where we have school for about two months and then have a week off. This is conducive to our lifestyle because it gives the kids (and me, to be honest) a break. It also allows them to avoid burn out without losing a lot of information.

It is also great when we want to go on vacation or visit family because we can take advantage of cheaper flights during non-peak times.

Jaime

We are in our first year of homeschooling our kindergartner. I was a public school teacher prior to his birth, following a traditional school year schedule. I taught math and remember spending the first month trying to help the kids remember things that they knew cold at the end of the previous year.
As a homeschool mom, I’ve seen what my son loses in only a week or two off of school, particularly in reading fluency. So, we will be continuing with reading instruction and practice year-round. I’m also planning to spend the summer catching up on fun science activities and throwing in more math here and there, as well as the occasional letter to a family member to keep up on handwriting skills.

http://chasinraisins.blogspot.com/ Tina Marie

Oops. Why we homeschool year round continued 🙂

One of those reasons is why I just miss hit the enter button 🙂 Life happens. Last night I was up a lot with our new baby, but substitute, illness, burnout, etc. When life happens and we school year round we don’t fall behind and get stressed when we need to take time off. Frankly, I like the freedom it provides, some days we all wake up and decide its a park day and that’s okay too. We can vacation at the non-peak times of the year, avoiding crowds and saving money. We don’t end up wasting time at the beginning of the year getting the kids brains functioning again, so the time we spend schooling stays productive and progressive.

Another option it allows is to break up the year by subject too. There are certain subjects we do year long like reading and math. However, in the summer I like to focus on Science and History (we lean toward CM so this includes lots of reading and writing). I usually finish both curricula over the summer and don’t start our formal studies in other subjects (other than math) till the traditional year starts. That’s all the change of pace the boys seem to need.

Michelle

We school through the summer but summer means a much reduced schedule and it’s when we hire a tutor (home from college) to come over and review some the harder concepts learned through the year and leave it up to the kids to figure out what they want her to help them with. For my son it’s almost always math of some sorts. For my daughter it’s usually Spanish conversation since I can’t help much there!

Stefani

You are going to want a break. If not for the kids, for yourself! At least take a small break… 2-4 weeks. For our homeschool, we schedule out history and science to end when the “school year” ends, but if we continue other subjects beyond that point, it’s less work for me and my daughter, so I’m fine doing 1-2 subjects a day until those finish out (or all summer if it takes that long) during the “summer break.” Obviously, reading can be kept up all year long easily. I wouldn’t recommend continuing full homeschooling days during the summer unless your child(ren) is(are) begging and you feel up to it… or if they can work independently.

http://www.iliveinananbed.com I Live in an Antbed

We often homeschool year ’round. It provides much needed continuity and prevents the backward slide that often occurs when kids have 3 months off. Our schedule looks different for different years (this is our 20th year of homeschooling), depending upon the season our family happens to be in. This year, we plan to have school M-Thurs, taking Fridays off for activities and projects. We adopted two boys from Siberia several years ago and it truly is necessary for them not to have large breaks in formal learning because they lose too much ground. Also, we travel a great deal and so we set aside “formal” learning for our trips, but take advantage of long drives and time in other locations to pursue learning opportunities that present themselves. The key is flexibility. When we have the mindset that learning is always taking place and will continue as long as we are alive, the schedule becomes servant to that process rather than master to it. One other thought: if your husband believes your daughter needs the summer off, then it is best that you follow his advice. I know that, even when I don’t understand the reason behind it, the Lord leads our family through my husband.

kellymarie

Two years ago we started year-round schooling.. Several reason; my son(currently a 2nd grade) has learning disabilities and he loses a lot of info during the summer, if I don’t have him exposed. Instead of a 6hr day we have 3hour days of book work and then its computer programs, art, music, or gym. We take a week off for birthdays, Christmas time n days here and there when we need a break. It feels less stressful this way to him and I. During the summer my daughter(who currently attends school, later to be home-schooled) also sits with us and I homeschool her during the summer. They are up early and by 10 or 11 in the morning, they are done and have their entire day to have their summer fun.
We don’t use a certain curriculum but I use various books, for example; his Lang Arts is BJU and MAth is Horizons, Abeka for history..etc..

I think homeschool or public school, its a good thing to keep them thinking

Alicia

We school year-round. So, what that looks like for us is we take a week off in September, a week off at Thanksgiving, two weeks at Christmas, one week for Spring Break. I will probably adjust that a little this year since we are taking vacation in February. Then we take six weeks off in the summer. I will continue to have my 6 year old read everyday and I think we are going to do some math over the summer break. I have some friends that school year-round that do six weeks of school and then take a week off. They love it, I personally like having a longer break.

http://modernmia.blogspot.com/ Mama Mia

We school year-round as well. It gives us the flexibility to have shorter days for school work plus take breaks for vacation during the off-season, take days of when daddy is off of work, and have days where we just take it easy. We’ve been doing this schedule since the kids started school almost 2 years ago. It has worked well for us. We use a variety of curricula but follow a classical format.

http://upcountryliving.blogspot.com Jenna

I do not have any children of my own yet to homeschool, but I was a homeschooled child myself over ten years ago, so I figured my two cents still apply!

We took summers off and, actually, my summer breaks were longer than those in the public school system. In Northern Maine, they spend a great deal of June in the classroom, making up for the loads of snow days they had to take mid-winter. Considering snowstorms never kept me from learning, I always finished up at least a week before them.

I enjoyed my summer breaks and, as far as I can remember, my mom did, too. I never had any issues with picking up the curriculum again once the break was over, but, then again, I’m a voracious reader, so it’s likely my brain stayed active even in the “down” months.

I remember my mom anticipating the summer break because she didn’t have to feel “tied down” to the house/classroom during summer days. If you have a more flexible learning environment than “sit in this room and complete your homework,” your year-long homeschooling process will probably seem much more organic.

Good luck in making your decision!

Tisha

We have traditionally followed the public school calendar as I felt that I needed the summer break as much as the kids wanted it.
However, I also become frustrated with the amount of time wasted reviewing concepts each fall – though the typical Math curriculum is created with that thought in mind.
My boys are in middle school now, but we can still be done in half a day most of the time. I think I will give more thought to the year-round approach, maybe with one full month off during the summer and a month off for Christmas. I really like the idea of a less stressful holiday season.
Thanks for bringing it up 🙂

Lara

We homeschool year round and take breaks whenever something comes up any time of year. Around here, we are getting beautiful days and so we take days off often. In the Summer, faced with 100 degree plus days? That’s better weather to school in than the gorgeous Spring days we are having now. We do “school” 3 or 4 days a week during the school year and drop that down to 2-3days in the Summer.

Aimee

I wouldn’t say that we school year round but we do some bit of school all year. 😉 Make sense? We do “full” school late August through May with some short breaks in between. We take 2 weeks off in the beginning of May then we will start back up with math and reading. In mid July we begin vocabulary and spelling again. Then late August starts all subjects. We do this so we do not lose the school mind. If we take off to long, the kids (and mom) become lazy and it’s hard to get back in the routine. We also spend to much time reviewing if we take off the entire 3 months and no one enjoys that. This also allows us to take time off during the school year without any worries of “getting behind.” This has always worked well for us and the kids do great with it.

Noel S

After homeschooling for 9 years – we’ve shortened our summer break from three months to only 6-8 weeks. We do take a break though so we can focus on other things (momma needs to take a break)! During our break we can do things together like take an extra trip, paint/redecorate a room, clean out the storage, reorganize toys, book etc, or just go fishin’. Homeschooling is all about doing what your family needs, so tailor it to your family and be unafraid!

btw.. there’s a sense of accomplishment when you’ve completed the year and can take a break. Homeschooling becomes less like an endless cycle. The break is our reward 🙂

Kathleen K

One of my (many) favorite reasons to homeschool is that we can do what works best for OUR family. Recognizing that most American jobs do not include a “summer break,” I think it is important to teach children to “work” year round. Our family begins the school year in July (we live in HOT Texas) with our mandatory academic work–grammar and math. Usually in August I add in history, Bible and Science. We take a break in the fall for garden and yard work or vacation. We work steadily until spring time, when we start the spring garden and yard work. About this time, the mandatory academic work is completed. We take a couple week break and then start some “electives.” This year, we’ll be focusing on piano, drawing with colored pencils, and writing composition. By July, we’ll be ready for math and grammar again.